By Sheeva Azma
Here’s a list of my dream freelance jobs! If you want to work with me, check out this list for a bunch of projects that I will definitely say “yes” to.
I am a freelance science creative, but before I started Fancy Comma, LLC, I had spent most of my life as a brain nerd and neuroscientist. I was living the life of the mind (and brain) — literally. There’s nothing more exciting than trying to figure out how the human brain works — and sharing that excitement with people.
Being a marketer has never matched being a neuroscientist in that way. The times it has gotten close are usually under NDA. That stands for “non-disclosure agreement,” in case you didn’t know, which means you can’t talk about it…kind of like in Fight Club.
My greatest pet peeve is when people ask for a long list of my ideas…and then don’t use a single one.
What gives? I feel like I’m too creative for it all. Why doesn’t my creativity get channeled properly in these contexts?
Creativity is hard work and we shouldn’t waste it, if you ask me. We never let our ideas go to waste in science, mostly because we were working on the taxpayer’s dime and had to be resourceful.
That “freelance creatives” are people who are typically creative in non-scientific ways is a warped definition of “creativity.”
Look at the state of life sciences consumer-facing marketing. Just watch the ads on TV, internet, and radio, and decide for yourself. It’s, in a word, bad. A woman singing and dancing to sell you diabetes medicine. A dog jumping through hoops to tell you about the new blockbuster drug newly approved by the FDA that only has certain use cases not relevant to 90% of the people who watch it.
One could argue that people espousing disinformation and misinformation more than being convinced by actual facts is a direct consequence of life sciences marketing failing to really reach people.
Scientists are never writing those ads – how could they? They’re too busy doing science in the lab.
That “freelance creatives” are people who are typically creative in non-scientific ways is a warped definition of “creativity.” It all feels so pointless and dull sometimes…especially given that we can do better.
We can hire scientist creatives like me to do marketing, for example.
I’m a thinking-out-of-the-box type of person, I tell myself when faced with these realities. I’m not like those boring marketers who haven’t come up with a unique idea in years but get to come up with all the allegedly “fun” and decidedly influential campaigns.
Well, it turns out you can’t just have a good idea. You have to have someone that trusts you enough to execute on them in a way that drives results.
That’s the toughest part.
I seek more creative freedom and autonomy as a freelance science creative. I’m not “just” a scientist or “just” a marketer — I’m both, and my unique skill set is an asset.
No, ChatGPT didn’t write that. Of course I did. Hire me, not ChatGPT, to explain science. You will be so happy you didn’t leave communicating science to people up to an LLM.
Hire me for these jobs, my soon-to-be colleagues.
An incomplete list of my dream freelance jobs
- Write a speech or ghostwrite an op-ed for an important person. Why can’t someone with a science background write one of these for once? At least the science facts would be right and explained in ways that fit the context of the situation.
- Write something that Congress uses in deciding policy or making decisions. You know when you’re watching C-SPAN and the lawmaker picks up a printout of a New York Times article — that’s some important journalism. I’d love to be that person who gets their article read by important decisionmakers!
- Write something working with a client without having the marketing person edit it 213123129 times to turn it into something completely different. I have no real problem with this, but why ask me for my idea if you are going to just use one tiny part, or even worse, scrap it entirely? It’s a waste of time, money, and resources all around.
- Lead a marketing campaign or provide strategy advice for a major brand. This would be so fun!
- Run the communications-focused strategy for a major political candidate. I’m so frustrated with the way our lawmakers communicate these days. Perhaps it is out of necessity, but it is largely devoid of scientific discourse.
- Be the person who comes up with a catchy tagline or slogan. So super Mad Men of me!
- Actually get the credit for an awesome project I worked on so I can add it to my portfolio and get the opportunity to work on more projects! It’s not just a credit thing; it’s an economic one, too.
- Get published in the New York Times and/or Wall Street Journal. Hey, a science creative can dream.
- Have Fancy Comma, LLC be mentioned in a major publication. Have you seen what Fancy Comma, LLC is doing lately? Oh, it’s just fabulous. I read about it in <publication>.
- Write a novel — or a scientific publication! It feels like everyone is writing one or the other of these, these days.
My fellow freelance science creatives — what’s on your list? Chime in below in the comments!
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